Elagabalus

Elagabalus:

see HeliogabalusHeliogabalusor Elagabalus, c.205–222, Roman emperor (218–22). He was a priest of the local sun god, Elagabalus, at Emesa and was named Varius Avitus Bassianus......Click the link for more information..

Heliogabalus

, Elagabalus

original name Varius Avitus Bassianus. ?204--222 ad, Roman emperor (218--222). His reign was notorious for debauchery and extravagance

I shall begin by outlining what we can reasonably suppose Greene and his contemporaries knew of the Roman emperor Heliogabalus (or, more properly, Elagabalus) before setting out the case for Heliogabalus as the mad priest of the sun and finally suggesting what Greene might have meant by the allusion.

The Stationers' Register indicates that by 1594 such a play was in existence, so it may have been to this, rather than simply to the historical emperor Heliogabalus, that Greene alluded six years earlier.

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